Page 71 of Dragonfly

“No. I got it.”

Damien makes a noise in the back of his throat. “Please, amore. Let me help you.”

Amore… I don’t need to know any Italian to take a stab at what that means.

I hold out my hand. Without a word, he lifts me easily so that I’m now standing.

And that’s when I realize that I don’t have anything to cover me from the waist down.

It’s fine. The only people allowed in this house are members of Damien’s immediate family. Genevieve will turn her back and cover her eyes at any reminder that her forty-year-old brother fucks, and if Vin happens to catch a glimpse of my bare ass, I don’t think Damien will care?—

He holds up a finger. “One moment, cara mia.” He pulls off his baseball shorts, then his boxer briefs. Handing me his underwear before stabbing his legs back into the shorts, he commands, “Put these on.”

Damien’s used underwear?

I just had his bare cock inside of me. He came, too, and used his finger to make sure his creampie didn’t immediately drip down my thighs. It is now—and I’m so sticky, I can’t wait to shower—but I draw the line at pulling on his boxer briefs.

“I’m good, thanks.”

A muscle ticks in his jaw. He gestures at my lower half. “Fine, but if I find out you paraded around like that in front of my cousin, I will slap that ass red—but not before I pluck out his eyeballs for seeing something that’s meant only for your husband.”

Oh. Um. Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe he will care if Vin sees.

“Are you serious? He’s your blood.”

“He was born into being a Libellula. You were chosen. Never forget that for a moment.”

Chosen? “What are you on about, Damien? You didn’t marry me because you wanted to or some shirt like that. You were punishing me for trying to kill you. That’s all.”

And I’ve never forgotten that for a moment.

I have to go. I also don’t want to be the reason Damien turns on his cousin so, as gross as it is, I shrug on his warm boxer briefs to that I can get out of here without him trying to stop me again?—

“Is that what you think?”

Shuddering out a breath, my back to Damien, I admit to myself that’s what I know.

Next thing I know, he’s there. His hands are on my shoulders, easing me around so that I’m facing him, and he’s there.

“You’re wrong. I didn’t marry you to punish you. If anything, I was punishing myself.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Damien lowers his hands so that they’re on my back again. Pushing me toward him, tucking me under his chin, he suddenly has me in an embrace so comforting, he could whisper in my ear that he’s lying, that it’s his turn to stab me in the back… and I’d let him.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he says, “What is love if not obsession? From the moment I first saw your face, there was something in it I saw that I wanted. That I recognized. I’ve spent so many years looking for the perfect partner… for Gen’s sake, for the Family… and I’d just about given up. Sex was about release, not affection. But then you… I looked forward to seeing you watch me. Of course, I didn’t know then why you hated me. Why you had a perfectly good reason to blame me for your stay in prison?—”

My stomach lurches. “Damien, I?—”

“Shh. Let me finish, amore. I didn’t know any of that then. To be honest, I don’t think I would’ve cared. I’ve ruined many lives to get where I am.”

“You’ve helped some, too,” I have to admit. “Liz. Frankie and Annette. Your cook?—”

“Again, making me the good guy. But since I met you, Savannah… I want to be that guy. But how could I when you only married me because I gave you no choice? It wasn’t a punishment. It was an opportunity. You stabbed me, and in that moment of clarity that followed the excruciating pain, I saw my chance to make you mine. So long as you didn’t kill me, I could have the one woman who’s caught and kept my attention over the years.”

I gulp, threading my fingers behind Damien’s back. Because, somehow, I’m clinging to him as tightly now. “Me?”

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